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Video signal processor uses special-purpose integrated circuits with nonsaturating current mode switching to accept texture and color information from a digital computer in a visual spaceflight simulator and to combine these, for display on color CRT with analog information concerning fading.
Video event trigger (VET) processes video image data to generate trigger signal when image shows significant change like motion or appearance, disappearance, change in color, change in brightness, or dilation of object. System aids in efficient utilization of image-data-storage and image-data-processing equipment in applications in which many video frames show no changes and are wasteful to record and analyze all frames when only relatively few frames show changes of interest. Applications include video recording of automobile crash tests, automated video monitoring of entrances, exits, parking lots, and secure areas.
Parameter space calculation for phase lock loop operation in low signal to noise environment
Probabilistic mathematical click model for optimal click suppressing frequency modulated noise thresholds
Multi-filter phase locked loop demodulation
A generalized mathematical and computer model of the revised Apollo television system was developed and used to determine spectral compatibility with the overall Apollo communication system. In particular the effects of the change to commercial television format from slow-scan black and white on the principal telemetering subcarriers was analyzed. Experimental data was obtained from MSC telemetry division confirming the analytical results.
A nonlinear analysis of a multifilter phase-lockloop (MPLL) by using the method of harmonic balance is presented. The particular MPLL considered has a low-pass filter and a band-pass filter in parallel. An analytic expression for the relationship between the input signal phase deviation and the phase error is determined for sinusoidal FM in the absence of noise. The expression is used to determine bounds on the proper operating region for the MPLL and to investigate the jump phenomenon previously observed. From these results the proper modulation index, modulating frequency, etc. used for the design of a MPLL are determined. Data for the loop unlock boundary obtained from the theoretical expression are compared to data obtained from analog computer simulations of the MPLL.
Conventional analytical techniques used to determine and optimize phase-lock loop (PLL) characteristics are most often based on a model which is valid only if the intermediate frequency (IF) filter bandwidth is large compared to the PLL bandwidth and the phase error is small. An improved model (called the quasi-linear model) is developed which takes into account small IF filter bandwidths and nonlinear effects associated with large phase errors. By comparison of theoretical and experimental results it is demonstrated that the quasi-linear model accurately predicts PLL characteristics. This is true even for small IF filter bandwidths and large phase errors where the conventional model is invalid. The theoretical and experimental results are used to draw conclusions concerning threshold, multiplier output variance, phase error variance, output signal-to-noise ratio, and signal distortion. The relationship between these characteristics and IF filter bandwidth, modulating signal spectrum, and rms deviation is also determined.
Architectural requirements of a minicomputer-based specialized complex for automated digital analysis of multizonal video data are examined. The logic structure of multizonal video data and the complex mathematical provision required for the analysis of such data are described. The composition of the specialized complex, its operating system, and the required set of peripheral devices are discussed. It is noted that although much of the analysis can be automated, the operator-computer dialog mode is essential for certain stages of the analysis.
A 3-by-3 convolver utilizes 9 binary arithmetic units connected in cascade for multiplying 12-bit binary pixel values P sub i which are positive or two's complement binary numbers by 5-bit magnitide (plus sign) weights W sub i which may be positive or negative. The weights are stored in registers including the sign bits. For a negative weight, the one's complement of the pixel value to be multiplied is formed at each unit by a bank of 17 exclusive or gates G sub i under control of the sign of the corresponding weight W sub i, and a correction is made by adding the sum of the absolute values of all the negative weights for each 3-by-3 kernel. Since this correction value remains constant as long as the weights are constant, it can be precomputed and stored in a register as a value to be added to the product PW of the first arithmetic unit.
This paper introduces a recursive 3-D nonlinear digital filter, which is capable of performing noise suppression without degrading important image information such as edges in space or time. It also has the property of unnoticeable bandwidth reduction immediately after a scene change, which makes the filter an attractive preprocessor to many interframe compression algorithms. The filter consists of a nonlinear 2-D spatial subfilter and a 1-D temporal filter. In order to achieve the required computational speed and increase the flexibility of the filter, all of the linear shift-variant filter modules are of the IIR type.
Techniques of video compression applicable to remotely piloted vehicles (RPVs) are investigated. One approach is to reduce the frame rate, the other is to reduce the number of bits per sample needed to represent static picture detail by means of digital video compression. Hadamard transforms of 8 x 8 subpictures, with adaptive and nonadaptive quantization of transform coefficients, were investigated for the latter technique. Tapes of typical RPV video, processed by Aeronautronic Ford to simulate four frame rates, were again processed by the Ames real-time video system to obtain a variety of compressions of each of the four frame rates.
The Kitt Peak Vacuum Telescope's spectromagnetograph features real-time digital analysis of long-slit spectra formed on a 2D CCD detector, and is located at an exit port of a Littrow spectrograph. Commercial video processing boards are used to digitize the spectral images at video rates and to separate, accumulate, and buffer the spectra in the two polarization states. A processor removes fixed-pattern bias and gain from the spectra in cadence with spatial scanning of the image across the entrance slit; a data-control computer conducts position and width analysis of the line profiles and records line-of-sight magnetic field, Doppler shift, and other computed parameters, as demonstrated by the early observations presented.
The Video Image Stabilization And Registration (VISAR) process is an award winning video image processing software developed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. VISAR has a wide variety of application areas where the refinement of digital video is needed. It is used to correct jitter, rotation, and zoom effects by registering and processing on individual image captures that are a part of normal video capturing. Its most prominent uses were the 1996 Olympic Bombing case and in identifying Saddam Hussein during the Iraq war. Based on first-hand knowledge, this paper describes the VISAR process, which consists of several steps designed to refine digital video using VISAR software. The process determines the differences between two video images so that one, or both, of the images can be changed in ways that make them match as well as possible. Corrections include changes in position (horizontal and vertical image shifts), changes in orientation (image rotation), and changes in magnification (image zoom). While much of the VISAR process is automated, in its current embodiment it requires the user to initially identify the area of interest and to reset a threshold parameter if the default gives unacceptable results. The basic process that is used is an old tried and true method that determines how well the two images match. This process is called cross-correlation. It gives a single number, the correlation coefficient, that is equal to 1.0 if the images are perfectly matched, is equal to 0.0 if the images have nothing in common, and is equal to -1.0 if one image is the negative of the other. This basic process is used by many image stabilization methods. With VISAR we use it in a manner that provides statistical information needed to best determine orientation and magnification.
A fringe detection and measurement system was constructed for use with the CNRS Fizeau wedge laser tuner, consisting of three circuit boards. The first board is a standard Reticon RC-100 B motherboard which is used to provide the timing, video processing, and housekeeping functions required by the Reticon RL-512 G photodiode array used in the system. The sampled and held video signal from the motherboard is processed by a second, custom fabricated circuit board which contains a high speed fringe detection and locating circuit. This board includes a dc level discriminator type fringe detector, a counter circuit to determine fringe center, a pulsed laser triggering circuit, and a control circuit to operate the shutter for the He-Ne reference laser beam. The fringe center information is supplied to the third board, a commercial single board computer, which governs the data collection process and interprets the results.
A model space positioning system (MSPS), a state-of-the-art, real-time tracking system to provide the test engineer with on line model pitch and spin rate information, is described. It is noted that the six-degree-of-freedom post processor program will require additional programming effort both in the automated tracking mode for high spin rates and in accuracy to meet the measurement objectives. An independent multicamera system intended to augment the MSPS is studied using laboratory calibration methods based on photogrammetry to characterize the losses in various recording options. Data acquired to Super VHS tape encoded with Vertical Interval Time Code and transcribed to video disk are considered to be a reasonable priced choice for post editing and processing video data.
Full utilization of the potential of the materials research on the Space Station can be achieved only if adequate means are available for interactive experimentation between the science facilities and ground-based investigators. Extensive video interfaces linking these three elements are the only alternative for establishing a viable relation. Because of the limit in the downlink capability, a comprehensive complement of on-board video processing, and video compression is needed. The application of video compression will be an absolute necessity since it's effectiveness will directly impact the quantity of data which will be available to ground investigator teams, and their ability to review the effects of process changes and the experiment progress. Video data compression utilization on the Space Station is discussed.
Correlation performed on relatively small computer. Proposed method for processing video images in slowly changing scenes, renditions of complicated objects truncated to points, lines, polygons, or other simplified geometrical objects. Processed by image-correlating algorithms to extract information: recognize features and to track displacements of features in subsequent image frames to determine velocities. Entails correlation of far fewer data than original images.